When A Book Is Recommended
I'm not always with it when someone recommends a book to read. I usually forget something important like the name of the author and/or the title of the book. Needless to say it is quite hard to get the book and read it when that happens.

Well, one friend I have will always recommend truly interesting books. Sometimes they are bestsellers like the remarkable, Life of Pi. Other time they seem to come out of nowhere like his most recent recommendation, The Irresistible Revolutionary by Shane Claiborne. When he mentioned the book to me I knew I HAD, absolutely no doubt HAD to read the book. It is a book about following Jesus.

This friend has been an important part of my life for quite a few years now. In fact, in a number of ways he has been a spiritual guide. His spiritual insights have always helped me get through uncertain days. So, in that aspect you wouldn't be surprised that he recommends a book about Jesus.

Until you realize my friend is a self-proclaimed agnostic who has wanted nothing to do with the church for many years. He's a few years older than I am, so you know it's been quite a few years for him. Here he was recommending a book about Jesus which he bought, he said, because it made him think of me.

With that kind of recommendation, I bought the book. Immediately.

I still have to get back to him and talk about it, but it is a remarkable book. The chapter on our divided allegiance as Christians and Americans is worth the price of the book. But beyond that, it is a challenge to the economic visions of American Christianity, a vision of life in Mother Theresa's India (He lovingly calls her Momma T) as well as many other things that sneak up on you with Claiborne's folksy style.

In many ways it sounds, at first glance, like a throwback to the Jesus Movement of the early 70s except it's based on a different basic theology. But like that earlier movement it is based on community, counter- or alternative-culture taking on the dominant culture. It is an important early 21st Century critique of where we are in American Christianity.

I will have more about this book as time goes on. I have a hunch it is one that will reverberate in my subconscious for a while to come.